


Restart

by Theoroark



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/F, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Grief/Mourning, Pharah and Mercy each being 20 different kinds of mess, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 07:38:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9113089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theoroark/pseuds/Theoroark
Summary: She had called Angela a couple times at college, mostly during her biotic engineering course, and then mostly around exam times. And they’d stayed in touch while she was in the military, though Fareeha had always worried what Angela had thought of her decision. But the first time they had reunited in person was during a U.N. conference in Cairo that Helix had been hired to do security for.-Pharmercy beginning, and facing a major challenge together.





	

She had called Angela a couple times at college, mostly during her biotic engineering course, and then mostly around exam times. And they’d stayed in touch while she was in the military, though Fareeha had always worried what Angela had thought of her decision. But the first time they had reunited in person was during a U.N. conference in Cairo that Helix had been hired to do security for.

  
“Fareeha!” Her throat jumped same as it always did, and Fareeha closed her eyes, reminded herself that she wasn’t ten anymore, and turned to give Angela what she hoped was a mature, charming, _normal_ smile.

  
“Angela! I was wondering if you would be here.” Angela laughed at that and well, as long as she thought Fareeha had intended it to be funny.  
“I was thinking of looking you up, while I was here. You and I should get coffee while I’m here.”

  
“The squad was going out after this.” Fareeha suddenly had a vision of her squadmates asking question after question of Angela while throwing her knowing glances. “But they’re going to a dive. You liked mom’s baklava, right? I know a place that makes the best. Second best.”

  
And so they ended up wandering the streets, Angela licking honey off her fingers, Fareeha bumping into her shoulder and feeling radiation from the point of contact every time.

  
“It was good seeing you,” Angela said at the end of the night, as they stood at the corner block of her hotel. “Is Helix keeping you busy?”

  
“Yeah. But not too busy,” Fareeha amended, quickly. “You know, we have stations all over, I have some vacation time saved up-“

  
Angela leaned in and kissed her. When she pulled away, Fareeha felt her cheeks burning and her smile spread wide, and she couldn’t quite care because Angela was red-cheeked and dopey-smiled too. “So I’ll see you again soon, then?” Angela said.

  
“Definitely.”

  
And so they texted or holo-chatted every day, Angela would find business around Giza and Fareeha would travel to meet her on their days off. Angela took her to places in Zurich and Fareeha took her to meet her squad, which went about as poorly as she had imagined. They spent weeks together in that way, Fareeha marveled at the fact that she had landed her childhood crush, and marveled at the fact the Angela was even better than her ten year old self could have guessed.

  
One day, Angela came up to her, her face drawn tight, and handed her a letter.

  
“Is everything ok, Angie?”

  
“Fareeha, read it, please.” She opened it and read it and stared at the signature at the bottom, her hands shaking. “Fareeha, please, I’m so so sorry-“

“How long.” Angela looked down. “How LONG, Angela? How long have you been lying to me?”

  
Angela was tearing up. “I was the the one who got to her, after she was shot. She made me promise, Fareeha- she said your life and her life would be in danger if you knew-“

  
“She said that, did she?” Fareeha laughed, the letter crumpling as her hand closed into a fist. “What else did she tell you? Did she tell you to fuck me, did she say that would soften the blow?”

  
“What the fuck, Fareeha.”

  
“Oh, I’m sorry? Was that rude of me? I’m sorry, maybe you would understand better if you had been around for me after she ‘died,’” Fareeha was yelling now, Angela still looking down, her arms crossed. “Maybe if you had bothered to look me up I could have told you about how it destroyed me to have the mother I barely saw anyway gone for good. Maybe you would have known about how I nearly flunked out of school because there were whole days when I couldn’t get out of bed. Maybe you would have known how I only got by because my dad got in touch with me. Maybe then you would fucking understand why I’m taking the fact that I didn’t _have_ to go through all that fucking shit, a little hard.”

  
Angela jerked her face up and she was snarling, her hands slammed down to her sides. “You knows what, Fareeha? I’m sorry your mom didn’t talk to you for a few years. You’re right, that sucks. But I’m never going to talk to my mom again, ok? So don’t act like I didn’t know what I was doing. I wanted to save you from what I’ve had to deal with. I’m not going to apologize for that.”

  
Fareeha sat down on the ground and put her head in her hands. She heard Angela’s footsteps heading to the door.

  
“Don’t go.”

  
Angela paused. “I think I should.”

  
“Please.”

  
“I’ll come back tomorrow morning, Fareeha. I promise.” She left and Fareeha got as far as her couch before she collapsed, the letter still in her hand, and spent the rest of the night flipping through photo albums of family, Overwatch, Angela, family, Overwatch, Angela…

  
She woke up to the sound of someone knocking on the door. After thirty seconds of mentally preparing herself and constant knocking, she dragged herself up and opened it.

  
Angela stood there, holding a paper bag. She held it out. “I brought this for…” she trailed off.

  
Fareeha looked down at herself. Both of her braids were falling apart, she was wearing the same clothes as last night, her shirt had drool on it. She’d had break ups wearing worse, all things considered. There was that time at boot camp. That had to be worse. “What is it?”

  
“Baklava.” Fareeha snorted and gestured to the counter and Angela walked over and set it down, unsure. “Fareeha-“

  
“I know this wasn’t a job. I’m sorry I said that. It was mean.” Fareeha leaned against a chair, looking down. “You never really liked any of this work, did you? You wouldn’t seek it out. I know that. I know you only wanted to help.” She looked up and Angela was standing there, her hand over her face, crying.

  
“I’m so, so sorry, Fareeha,” she said, her voice cracking. “I wanted to tell you. So bad. But your mother was so- she told me that there were people hunting Overwatch agents and-“ Her voice broke in a full sob. “I’ve lost so many people, Fareeha, so, so many, and I was willing to let you go if it meant I didn’t have to lose you. But I didn’t think about you. You’re so different from me, Fareeha, you always wanted to fight, and I didn’t think, I should have remembered.”

  
Fareeha walked over to her and wrapped her arm around her. Angela leaned into her, and Fareeha wiped at the corners of her eyes.

  
“You know,” she said. “It’s funny you say that. Because I was always worried you remembered too much about me. About all the stupid things I said and did, back when we were kids, I was so worried you thought of me as that little brat who used your prototype armor for target practice-“

  
“Oh my GOD,” Angela gave a hiccupy laugh and shoved her a bit. “I forgot about that.” She paused, and Fareeha rocked her a little. “Your mom had the right idea,” she said. “We need a fresh start.”

  
Fareeha shook her head. “We don’t get one,” she said. “We can’t get one. My mom couldn’t escape her past and neither can we.”

  
She felt Angela tense and she took a deep breath. “But we can keep going with this, right? I’m willing to deal with all this if you are.”

  
Angela pulled away and put her hands on her face and looked into her eyes. Fareeha felt herself giggling and felt herself tearing up, but she didn’t move away. Angela leaned in and kissed her.

  
“For you, Fareeha,” she said. “For you, I’ll fight.”

**Author's Note:**

> *starts writing fluffy Pharmercy* *thinks of something super angsty Angela could say to Fareeha* *switches tracks*
> 
> My tumblr is theoroark, if you want to talk to me there.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading this- this is my first work in the Overwatch fandom, so I hope I did ok with fanon. Any comments or kudos would mean the world to me!


End file.
